500 words a day on whatever I want

Mari Copeny

Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny (2007- ), a third-grade student from Flint, Michigan, is the current Little Miss Flint. She wants to someday become Miss America and a police officer. She is best known for writing President Obama about the Flint Water Crisis.

She says the water in Flint smells like bleach or old fish, that if you take a shower for more than two minutes you get bad rashes and stuff. She gave a speech about the crisis and made a YouTube video too. She has marched in protest and helped to give out bottled water. She appeared at the #JusticeForFlint concert.

In March 2016 she wrote President Obama:

Mr. President,

Hello my name is Mari Copeny and I’m 8 years old, I live in Flint, Michigan and I’m more commonly known around town as “Little Miss Flint”. I am one of the children that is effected by this water, and I’ve been doing my best to march in protest and to speak out for all the kids that live here in Flint. This Thursday I will be riding a bus to Washington, D.C. to watch the congressional hearings of our Governor Rick Snyder. I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife. My mom said chances are you will be too busy with more important things, but there is a lot of people coming on these buses and even just a meeting from you or your wife would really lift people’s spirits. Thank you for all that do for our country. I look forward to being able to come to Washington and to be able to see Gov. Snyder in person and to be able to be in the city where you live.

Thank You
Mari Copeny

He did not reply nor did he or his wife meet with the people of Flint who came to Washington.

Then, suddenly, a month later:

The White House
Washington

April 24, 2016

Amariyanna Copeny
Flint, Michigan

Dear Mari: Thank you for writing to me. You’re right that Presidents are often busy, but the truth is, in America, there is no more important title than citizen. And I am so proud of you for using your voice to speak out on behalf of the children of Flint.

That’s why I want you to be the first to know that I’m coming to visit Flint on May 4th. I want to make sure people like you and your family are receiving the help you need and deserve. Like you, I’ll use my voice to call for change and help lift up your community.

Letters from kids like you are what make me so optimistic for the future. I hope to meet you next week, “Little Miss Flint.”

“What I wonder is how much empathy he has, if any, for the children of Flint.”

He drink the water, hugged the kid, declared everything is ok and went on his merry way. Did you expect him to inquire into how City, State and Federal authorities failed to prevent the Flint water disaster?

That last photo~
Almost brought tears to my eyes. Her closed eyed tight embrace and all it said so encapsulate an ideal many African Americans held when we elected this man. Somewhere in our hearts and minds, there lingered tinges of a desire for a Black political messiah that would hear our cries and know our desires to be free to realize our individual potentials as fully involved and appreciated participants and change agents in “the American Dream”… So sad…Obama’s presidential experience. Sad on so many levels, and for so many elements of the people of the United States.

Somewhere in our hearts and minds, there lingered tinges of a desire for a Black political messiah that would hear our cries and know our desires to be free to realize our individual potentials as fully involved and appreciated participants and change agents in “the American Dream”… So sad

We can’t afford to wait on a “messiah” to save us. We must save ourselves.

@Mack Lyons (@DDSSBlog)
It’s possible that a black messiah could save us. A small possibilty. But not a black messiah sent by the white man. ‘No angel born in hell could break that Satan’s spell’
And as the flames rose high into the night
I saw Satan laughing with delight.’

Okay, okay, one more, then I’m going to go. But once I start thinking about a song, the lyrics begin running in my head. And this line is so apropos to how I feel about Obama and his performance the past 7 and a half years.
“As I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage!
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan’s spell!”
Thank you Don McLean.

“Did you expect him to inquire into how City, State and Federal authorities failed to prevent the Flint water disaster?”

The Prez had no need to inquire. He had an inside line on what was occuring in Flint two years ago and did nothing. The Environmental Protection Agency is part of the Executive branch and the director reports to the President.

According to Black Agenda Report editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who was a senior-level whistleblower at the EPA, she “can’t imagine” that EPA administrator Gina McCarthy did not send President Obama a memo [by 2015 at the latest] that essentially warned, “There is a potential that a major American city may be poisoned.”

Failure to warn the public of imminent environmental danger “is a criminal offense,” Coleman-Adebayo said.

He didn’t care then and he doesn’t care now. That makes that Mari Copeny’s joy exquisitely heartbreaking.

@Afrofem,
I just read the Black Agenda Report on the visit. I was gagging when I read about the recommendation to use filters, with a photo of President Obama drinking that water from a filter. I would never, ever, even consider drinking that water or giving it to my child with a filter. Emergency cases of water should be sent into Flint imo. Well, should have already, but there has to be some way to get water sent in there that is bottled.

She’s a child, therefore, she is entitled to her childish illusions. What does it say about the adults who let Obama get away with his contemptuous attitude toward them? He, in effect, was saying: “Drink the water you dummies, you aren’t smart enough to know what’s good for you”

There have been massive shipments of bottled water to Flint, MI. Some of it was purchased by the state from Nestle. One wrinkle is that Nestle is pumping ground water in Northern Michigan and selling it to the state (and the rest of the world) for distribution in Flint.

Also bottled water doesn’t cut it for cooking, cleaning, bathing or washing clothes. Imagine dealing with bottled water if you have infants, young children, the sick, disabled or elders in the household.

The state of Michigan reportedly has half a billion dollars stashed away for a rainy day fund. They need to completely replace the water delivery system in the city of Flint. They wouldn’t hesitate to do it for Grosse Pointe or Traverse City.

Why hasn’t the puppet in chief called a state of emergency?
Why hasn’t he indicted some one?
I bet Putin wouldn’t put up with that this:
Look at his attitude to space launch negligence.
“Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says those responsible for crimes during the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome won’t escape responsibility if their guilt is proven, and will swap house arrest for prison bunks.”

He did that water drinking stunt twice. Made a big show of it the second time. He’s saying ‘Go ahead drink the water. I might have had lead poisoning as a child. It’s not so bad. Besides as long as children have good healthcare, they won’t have any long-term development issues.

@Afrofem
That’s his MO with problems that effect black people. Instead of taking political actions well within his power to effectively address the problem, he frames the problem in such a way as to make it more palatable (pun intended). It’s a wonder he didn’t break out in a chorus of Amazing Grace.

@Afrofem
Cajoling the victims of his malign neglect.
‘Usually crimes against humanity take place behind closed doors, in concentration camps, Abu Ghraib-like torture settings or Nazi Germany; not so in 83% Black Detroit, Michigan. In the next few weeks, the international community will witness with eyes wide open the city of Detroit’s blatant violations of human rights. These crimes will be condoned and executed by Detroit officials with the full knowledge of the White House’http://www.globalresearch.ca/detroit-deprived-of-life-sustaining-water-un-investigates-human-rights-violations/5524805.

Yes, that is quite a vise grip the water dept. has on Black Detroiters. Turn off the exhorbitantly priced water. Then swoop in and grab the kids of their victims because the parents are “endangering the children” because of lack of water.

No water shut offs for businesses who are more than $9 million in arrears.